Dessert Fun

Dessert is not really our thing around here. Don't get me wrong, we LOOOVE our sweet treats, all 4 of us, especially me these days! However, we try not to keep much of the sweet stuff stocked in the pantry or make dessert after dinner a nightly ritual in order to establish healthy eating habits for the children. That said we do indulge from time to time and last night we had some fun with it. I found the recipe here and was totally inspired!!!! I highly recommend testing this out with your kiddos! It was a big hit all around!

Smoothies, Protein Balls and Crayons

Smoothies are a fan favorite around here so while there has not been much happening blog worthy lately, I thought I would share my recipe for the one I make pretty much on a daily basis for the the kiddos and myself. If there is left over smoothie I just put it in popsicle molds for an instant sweet treat later on, Sophie especially loves it this way!

Smorgishborg Smoothie

For the frozen fruits I just sort of eye up how much I want in there but if you need some sort of measurement I would say it is at least two good sized handfuls of each.

Frozen Mango
Frozen Strawberries
Frozen Blueberries
2-3 Kale leaves (stems removed)
1 whole Banana
1 tsp Alfalfa powder
2 TBSP Liquid Chlorophyll
Orange Juice (enough to make it all liquidy and smoothie like)

Blend until smooth!

Why I use the ingredients I do:
Mango - improves digestion, lowers cholesterol, improves concentration and memory, helps clear pores, rich in iron, helps fight diabetes, high in antioxidents which are known preventors of cancer and heart disease.

Strawberries - high amounts of dietary fiber, antioxidents, anti-inflammatory, loaded with Vitamin C and Manganese and the Potassium, Vitamin K and Magnesium help build strong bones.

Blueberries - highest antioxident capacity of all fruit, neutralizes free radicals which can affect disease and aging, improved urinary tract health, aids in better vision and brain health, high fiber content.

Kale - full of Vitamins A,K, & C, antioxidents and anti-inflammatory properties help fight cancer, high fiber is heart healthy, aids in digestion, lowers blood sugar and curbs overeating.

Banana - good source of potassium, minimizes the risk of kidney stones, highest source of naturally available Vitamin B6 which helps your body to make hemoglobin a crucial ingredient in blood.

Alfalfa - contains 8 essential amino acids, rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and zinc, a good source of beta carotene. This superfood provides a plethora of other AWESOME health benefits....just Google it and see for yourself!

Liquid Chlorophyll - cancer fighting, high levels of Vitamins A, C, & E making it a strong anti- inflammatory and antioxident, binds to and removes toxic heavy metals (like mercury) from your body, aids our bodies tissue in fighting germs, rapid delivery of magnesium, contains Vitamins K, C, folic acid, iron, calcium and protein which are all essential in building and repairing red blood cells and boosting our immune system.


Another new favorite I tested out recently was a recipe I found for protein balls. It had chocolate in it so I figured all members (myself included) of the Slimick fam would enjoy!

No Bake Protein Balls

3/4 cup Truvia ( I do not use Truvia so I just used my Demerara sugar, but any pure, natural cane sugar will do)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup coconut oil or butter (I used coconut oil because of it's benefits)
1/2 cup vanilla or chocolate almond milk ( I used unsweetened unflavored)
1/2 cup NATURAL peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups chocolate whey crisps (ok I really have no idea what these are so I went to the health food store and bought a healthy non-high fructose syrup containing brown rice crisp cereal I figured it was close enough, just thought I would include what the recipe actually called for in case anyone actually had whey crisps on hand!)

1 scoop chocolate protein powder, the recipe did not call for this but I added it anyway.

Combine first 4 ingredients in saucepan and bring to rolling boiling for 1-2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and drop by the tablespoon onto wax paper. Let cool and Enjoy. As a side note, I had to put mine in the fridge and store them there to help keep their firm texture.

They came out really good and were a HUGE hit with the kids and Neal. My mom even enjoyed them.



We have a lot of broken unused pitiful looking crayons around here, as I am sure many households with young children do. Not wanting to be wasteful these poor excuses for children's art supplies lay hidden away in our dark art closet, feeling inspired and on top of my game yesterday I enlisted the help of my ever willing husband to help me tear off all the little itty bitty stuck on like glue paper from ALL of our children's broken crayons so that Sophie and I could make recycled muffin crayons today!

Recycled Muffin Crayons

Lots of broken crayons with the paper peeled off
Muffin tins
Cooking spray ( I don't use cooking spray so I opted for a bit of vegetable oil on a paper towel to coat my muffin tins with)

Spray or rub oil into muffin tins, break up crayons into smallish pieces so they fit in the tins. Combine like colors or combine non like colors, make 'em funky and fun!

Bake in a 275 degree oven for 8 minutes. Ours took longer not sure if it was the type of crayons we used or what so just watch yours until they are melty. Take them out of the oven let cool you can put them in the fridge or freezer to speed up the process if you have eager excited children! Color!

CHOCOLATE PUDDING WITH A TWIST

I love chocolate, therefore so do my children! I LOVE this chocolate pudding and I don't feel too guilty about eating it or serving it to my kids. As you can see from the pictures it was a huge hit with Jonah.......no pics of Sophie since hers was GONE before Neal could bust out the camera!

Chocolate Pudding

1/4 cup butter

1 cup avocado puree

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cornstarch cup (you can use less, but your pudding won't be as thick)


In a medium saucepan melt butter over low heat. Stir in avocado puree, sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Cook mashing well with a spatula to smooth out any avocado lumps, until the mixture thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and gradually stir in cornstarch. Serve warm.

Like father like daughter......

GONE.......I think she liked it!

In the bathroom for clean up since he was a chocolate mess!!

Oatmeal

I am pretty proud of my newest off the top of my head cooking experiment. It was a pretty simple revelation nothing majorly complicated, but I was pretty darn proud of myself none the less! We always seem to have an abundance of fruit in our house and usually it all gets eaten, especially blackberries and strawberries in that case I can't buy them fast enough because my little berry eating monster can't get enough. Any how on rare occasions we don't eat all the fruit in enough time leaving us with wasted food and money. The other day we had one apple left and it was about time it got eaten same situation this morning with two peaches, any longer and they would have been wasted. So with Sophie's declaration that she wanted oatmeal for breakfast on these two particular days I whipped up some homemade Apples n' Cinnamon oatmeal one day and then today, my favorite, Peaches n' Cream!!! I have to say the Peaches n' Cream came out AWESOME it definitely took me back to my oatmeal lovin' days except with out all the partially hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, colors and variety of other genetically modified ingredients! It was fairly simple to make and took no more time than it would to make regular oatmeal (not the package kind but the rolled oats in the big huge container).

Apples n' Cinnamon Oatmeal

• 1 apple cored, peeled and cut to desired size pieces
• 2-3 tablespoons brown sugar
• Cinnamon to taste
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 3/4 cups water

Bring water to boil. Add oats cook about 5 minutes or until water is mostly absorbed then add apples, brown sugar and desired amount of cinnamon. Cook 5 or 10 minutes longer or until you have the desired consistency of your oatmeal.

Peaches n' Cream Oatmeal

• 2 Peaches pits removed, peeled and cut to desired size pieces (our two peaches probably ended up being about 1.5 peaches before they were added to the recipe since I have a little fruit bandit who invaded my kitchen!)
  
• 2-3 Tablespoons brown sugar depending on how sweet you want it, but the peaches make it pretty sweet.
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 3/4 cups milk

Bring milk to boil. Add oats and cook until most of the milk is absorbed then add peaches and brown sugar. Continue to cook until the oats are cooked through and you have the desired consistency. ENJOY! And feel good knowing that you can pronounce every single ingredient in this wholesome healthy breakfast and can list them all on one hand!

Please excuse my picture quality I definitely did not check the settings on the camera before I started snapping away and I was not re taking the pics, so I did what I could to edit them and make them look semi-decent!

Delicious!

Yesterday I tested out a new recipe that I adapted ever so slightly from another Mama's site which you can check out here. The recipe turned out great and was a crowd pleaser, although next time I may shred the zucchini so Sophie won't protest as much, although she did eat it (the zucchini), but it took some coaxing.

Homemade Hamburger Helper

• 1 lb ground meat of your choice (I used turkey)
• 1 medium onion chopped/diced
• 1 can crushed tomatoes or 1/2 to 3/4 of a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 box whole wheat spiral noodles
• 1/2 can of vegetable broth (preferably one without MSG...YUCK!)
• 1 8oz package of shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack)
• Veggies of your choice chopped, shredded or however your fam will eat them some good choices are bell peppers, kale, spinach, yellow squash the possibilities are endless. I opted for :

• chopped mushrooms
• 1 zucchini diced (however next time I will shred)
• 2 carrots shredded

In a large skillet saute the onion in a little bit of olive oil once they are tender and to your liking add and brown your meat. While meat is browning, boil water and cook noodles. Once meat is browned add your veggies of choice and cook a little longer to soften veggies(about 5 minutes). Add your crushed tomatoes or pasta sauce cook for about 10 minutes or so stirring every so often. Drain noodles and add to mixture. Add the vegetable broth be careful when adding this, the recipe calls for a whole can but I stopped at about a 1/2 a can because I did not want it to get too soupy, so use your judgement. Cook about 10 minutes longer stirring often. Add the cheese mix well, let it cool ever so slightly so your family doesn't scald themselves on this piping hot goodness! Enjoy!

Rolling With The Punches

Things are progressively moving forward here at the Slimick household. We are doing what we can to stay busy and thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has sent stuff, and dropped stuff by the house to help keep Sophie entertained and busy, which is a hard feat for a 2.5 year old since most things only hold her attention for about 15 minutes! So you can imagine the multitude of activities that we are running through and how the wheels are turning in my head with new ideas of things to do. I can't begin to express what it means to receive all the cards, emails, packages and get well wishes from everyone, I am overwhelmed with how many people care about my Sweet Sophie!

Sophie had her follow up appointment with her orthopedist today and he said that she is healing well and that the half cast will do and he sees no need to put her into a full on leg cast up to her thigh! YAY!!! Our prayers were answered with that one, since she is just feeling confident enough to crawl around and be semi mobile with out bearing weight on her leg, having her in a full cast would have presented a whole new set of challenges for her and us! So that was good news. We go back in 3 more weeks for the removal of both her leg and wrist cast at which time he will x-ray with the casts off and see how the healing has gone. From there the doc will decide if she can remain cast free or if she needs to be re-casted for an additional few weeks. Please continue to keep Sophie (and me) in your prayers, pray for swift healing for her and patience and strength for me. I never realized how much I relied on her walking around and following me around until she could no longer do it. I am nervous to leave her alone for too long in the play room for fear that she will try and stand on her leg, however she has been really good about that and seems grasp that she can not under no circumstances stand on her "pink thing" as she calls it. It really is almost like having an infant again (better get used to that one....hehe) only it is a 30 pound infant who wants to get up and run and do things! We are definitely taking things one day at a time and things are getting done (laundry, dishes, cooking, ironing etc.) just a lot slower. She really is handling this remarkably well and it is so amazing to me how resilient my sweet girl is, she just keeps rolling with the punches, bless her little heart.

Today, in an effort to keep some semblance of normalcy and pass some time, we baked some cookies. A favorite activity of both mine and Sophie's, I love to have them in the house and she loves to help and lick the batter! I had to make a modification in how she she helped since she usually stands on a chair at the counter, but it all worked out well and the cookies turned out fab. The recipe is a little out of season, but I happened upon it when thumbing through an old Parenting magazine when looking for words that start with 'C' for Sophie's alphabet book. It is a good fall cookie recipe, Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies. I love using pumpkin in recipes because it packs a good nutritional punch of Vitamins A & C and Potassium, plus I just love those fall spice smells, nutmeg and cinnamon mmmmmm.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup pureed fresh or canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnammon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 3 cups rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla; beat. Mix in combined flours, baking soda and spices, then stir in oats. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

Below are just some cute pics that I have been meaning to post of Sophie before the big break(s). I just had not gotten around to it yet. It makes me a little sad to see her cast free, smiling, happy and free to run around. We'll be there again running around though in a couple weeks, right now I will take the casted smiles knowing that things could have turned out worse.